Dublin Search Marketing is Stronger than Ever!

Well it has been a while since I have wrote a blog but I have just got back from speaking at the Search Marketing World Conference again this year in Dublin and I have to say it was a great success so well done Martin and Aisling of Interactive Return and I look forward to the next one.

The conference this year was bigger than last year so no 'Church of Search' as per my blog on last years event but the venue was really good. It is great to see the interest in the event with around 270 attendees I believe and a hunger to learn about Search and the Media Industry. The conference had some good pre event coverage and I got the chance to be part of a piece in the Irish Independent...even if they spelt my Name and Company wrong!

Martin again managed to assemble a great speaker line up and it was good for me to catch up with the usual conference speaker crew/friends like Mel Carson, Li Evans, Chris Sherman, Teddie Cowell, Sara Anderson, Brian Clifton, Mikkel deMib Svendsen, Bill Hunt, Rob Kerry, Andrew Girdwood, Mike Grehan (geordies!!) and Dave Naylor. But also to get to know better some of Irelands good search marketers at the event such as Dave Davis, Rob Pryce, Chad Gilmer, Jonathan Forrest.

The event went well and if anything was very fast paced with so much content for 1 day. I was lucky enough to be doing 3 panels and the first of the day was Social Search Marketing which we had alot of good content in and were able to ask interactive voting polls of the audience. (The guy on the left is not asleep he was writing some notes!)

One of the results of the pole questions that I asked still sticks in my head, it was the fact that around 60% of the audience only went into their social media account once a week. This was very difficult for someone like me who spends everyday with social media!

After this panel it flowed straight into the next one with no break so I was seen physically running to another room from the stage to moderate the Advance Search Engine Friendly Design Panel with Mikkel, Brian Marin and Teddie. The session content was really good and even let it run for a bit longer as the guys were getting alot of questions asked.

Last but not least for me was the Integrating Search into the Media Plan panel which for me was alot of fun because it is not often I talk about the concept of the integration of TV and Search but more and more now we have to consider the effects and I certainly am for my clients. We can see a direct correlation between TV advertising and how this drive people to online. Some stats I used explained the concept of 67% of offline media advertising will generate traffic to online.


More and more people now surf the Internet while watching TV (I am doing while I am writing this blog!!) the last stat is 57% do. And with the ability now to run hourly reports on your Google campaigns you can see the direct comparison between TV and Search as well as the potential lag factors by industry.

This makes for very powerful marketing data and the ability to refine and drive your campaigns harder with conversion in mind at the right times. It is important after this that you then understand as all good search marketers should how the traffic interacts with your website and the route to conversion including time lag in order to maximise ROI.

All in all the event was a great success and all I heard on the day was positive feedback for the content and organisation of the event.

Will there be one in 2009?? I think there will and I will definitely look to be there.